Rights advocates angry and puzzled as top Russian activist denied entry to Ukraine

The Russian human rights community has expressed concern and asked for Foreign Ministry help after a member of a respected Russian civil rights groups was denied entry to Ukraine.

Andrey Yurov chairs the commission for human rights in foreign
countries in the Presidential Human Rights Council and also works
as an expert in one of Russia’s oldest NGOs – the Moscow Helsinki
group. On Sunday he flew to Kiev planning to participate in an
international conference and to meet the Council of Europe’s
human rights commissioner .

However, Ukrainian border guards refused to let Yurov in, saying
his name was on a blacklist, and offered no further explanation.
The Russian activist had to return to Moscow on the same day.

The incident immediately caused a wave of outraged comments from
top Russian rights activists and officials.

Yurov told popular Russian talk radio Echo Moscow that the
decision to keep him out was a violation of Ukraine’s
international obligations, and warned the Ukrainian authorities
about the possibility of negative consequences.

The head of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alekseyeva called
the incident “a disgrace” and said that such a move was
not only preventing the activist from executing his duties, but
also violated his right of freedom of movement, as currently
there is a visa-free regime between Russia and Ukraine.

“Yurov worked a lot in Belarus when there was a large-scale
advance on the opposition and non-commercial groups there. It is
possible that the Ukrainian authorities are aware of that and so
they have decided not to let him in,” Alekseyeva told the
Interfax news agency.

The chairman of the Presidential Human Rights Council Mikhail
Fedotov sent a letter to Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in which
he asked the Ministry to investigate the situation and to try and
persuade Ukrainian authorities to reverse their decision.

Human Rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin also said he intended to
address the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Ukrainian embassy in
Moscow for explanations. Lukin noted that he did not plan to
contact his Ukrainian colleagues as he did not expect real help
from activists in solving the problem at a government level.

Lukin told Interfax that he understood the right of the Ukrainian
authorities to deny entry to foreigners without explaining
reasons but noted that political motivation for such decisions
was unacceptable. “If they have some moments of political
discontent they should keep those to themselves. Both in Ukraine
and in Russia the Constitution does not allow for repressions
based on political views,” the ombudsman said.

An aide to the head of the Ukrainian border guard service, Sergey
Astakhov, spoke to the press about the incident on Monday, and
reiterated that his agency was acting on behalf of Ukrainian law
enforcers. The official again declined to comment on possible
reasons for the decision.